Improvement in car-couplers



UNITED STATES PAJIEN'r OFFICE.

WAYLAND D. TIsDALE, oE ooETLAND, NEW YORK, AssIGNoE To EIMsELE AND cHEsrEE EAEoooK, 0E SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-CCUPLERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 136,627, dated March 11, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVAYLAND D. TISDALE, of Cortland, in the county of Cortland and State of New York, have invented certain Iinprovements in Apparatus for Coupling Railroad Cars, of which the following is specification:

Myinvention consists in attaching underneath and across the ends of the car an iron rod, to be operated by a person standing out side of the rails, and `so bent that the coup ling-link may be raised and guided by it into the drawhead of the car to be coupled.

Of the accompanying drawing, Figure I is a front View of the central portion of the carplatform or end and draw-head, with the rod underneath. Fig. II is a plan of the same portion of the car with the link raised by and resting `upon the rod, as seen from above. Fig. III is a side elevation of the samev parts.

I is the front part of the car-platform. o o are the bumpers. g is the draw-head. his the coupling-pin, and k the link, all in the ordinary form. Underneath the platform is a bent rod, b, which passes through eyes at d d, allowing the rod to swing or be turned theren,and also allowing motion to the rod laterally of the car. Around this rod are the coiledv springs c c, attached attheir inner ends to the rod, and at their outer ends resting against the eyes d d. The middle portion of the rod is bent down far enough sol that when turned forward it will strike and raise the link k. In the center of the rod a loop, c, is formed projecting forward and downward, as represented in Fig. 3. The ends ofthe rod are bent down so as to furnish handles ff, by which the de vice can be operated by a person standing outside of the rail.

In operatingthis device, as the cars approach each other the handle of the rod is moved forward and raised upward by the hand, raising the middle portion of the rod equally of course; this also raises thelink lc, into which the loop a partially enters, giving sufficient hold upon the link to guide it laterally, the springs c vallowing the requisite motion in the rod. As the link is thus guided into the approaching draw-head, Fig. 3, the forward end of the loop a passes underneath thek draw-head and is forced downward, carrying the rod out of the way. The pin h having been properly adjusted, the jar of the cars as they come together causes it to drop into its place, and the coupling is thus completed.

I am aware that bails for lifting and guiding the link are not new; but

What I claim as new is The combination of the rod b when bent as described, and having the loop or projection a thereon, with the coiled springs@ c and eyes d d, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this-specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WAYLAND D. TISDALE. Witnesses:

CHESTER BAECocK, JAS. A. NIKON. 

